Imkong Walling
Dimapur | March 14
With load demand growing at the rate of 10 percent per annum, electricity consumption in Nagaland has come a long way since 1963. A diesel generator set was what made up the power department back in 1960-61 with three towns having access to electricity.
Five decades later, power lines have reached 1400 villages and Nagaland has 3 dedicated Load Despatch Centres (distribution and transmission centre) with an installed load capacity of 174 Mva. As per data compiled by the Power department, installed power lines run approximately 19,000 kms inter-linked with as many as 134 major transmission and distribution sub-stations (or power house) and over 2500 mini distribution centres. At present, there are 2.55 lakhs metered consumers and increasing.
In addition, Nagaland has the state-owned 24MW Likimro HEP and the corporate-owned Doyang HEP and a few mini generating stations of 1MW capacity.
Going by numbers and the existing infrastructure, it appears relatively well-set for a small state with a population of around 20 lakhs and hardly any industry. While it looks robust outwardly, the Power Department is staring at bleak times ahead, sooner or later, as upkeep funding for the existing transmission and distribution infrastructure has witnessed a decreasing trend during the past one decade.
Simply put, the power distribution system is running under over-loaded conditions on the brink of breakdown with no fund in sight for upgrades and replacements. The recent extended blackouts in Mokokchung, Kiphire and Pfutsero and during 2012 in Dimapur would give a fair idea of the grim situation the Nagaland power sector is in.
Department personnel explain that it is running on a shoe-string budget with the annual fund allocated by the government rarely meeting the demands of exigencies as in breakdowns, repairs and replacements.
While myriad of constraints continue to dog the department and infrastructure crumble, government funding on this crucial sector is dipping year after year. If the records are anything to go by, fund allocation to the power sector has slipped to the bare minimum.
According to records made available, the annual fund allocation to the Power department from the State Plan outlay dipped to Rs. 7 crores in 2015-16 from Rs. 124 crores in 2008-09 (See Box).
The requirement projected by the department for 2015-16 was Rs. 140 crores. The Department also has pending bills amounting to Rs 17 Crores, incurred during 2015-16, which are due to suppliers.
2016-17 will not be any better either as an official from the department, who wished to remain anonymous, disclosed that the State government has proposed a measly 4.5 percent of the projected fund requirement for the coming financial year. The source said that the power sector has been allocated Rs. 12 crores in the State Plan outlay for 2016-17 which will likely be announced unchanged during the Assembly Budget Session on March 17.
Departmental projection on the other hand has indicated a requirement of Rs. 265 crores as operations and maintenance cost for 2016-17, excluding the cost of buying power. While repeated appeals from the department year after year have gone unheard, the source held that the government should seriously reconsider the proposed allocation of Rs. 12 crores.
Further, the source said that the miserly annual allocations are not in tune with the 5-year Plan approved specifically for the period 2013-14 to 2018-19. As per the plan, the state government had proposed to pump in Rs. 707 into the power sector over a 5-year period.
“The government disputes that it is spending crores running into the hundreds annually on the power sector,” the source said. While acknowledging the government’s argument, the source however maintained that it should make a clear distinction between maintenance cost and spending on buying power. “The government is misconceived to think that the money spent on buying power is contributing to upkeep of infrastructure. These are two different working units.”
The government reportedly raked up a staggering Rs. 200 crores as bill for drawing power from the national Grid in addition to the Plan allocation of Rs. 7 crores during 2015-16. In return, it barely managed to collect 50 percent of the cost.
